This report relates to 1 case(s)

In R v Secretary of State for Employment ex parte Seymour-Smith (No.2) the House of Lords has ruled that the Secretary of State was objectively justified under European law in increasing the unfair dismissal qualifying period from one to two years in 1985 and in maintaining it in 1991, when the applicants in this case were dismissed, notwithstanding that the qualifying period indirectly discriminated against women.

In R v Secretary of State for Employment ex parte Seymour-Smith and Perez (No.2) (17 February 2000) EOR90A, the House of Lords has ruled that the Secretary of State was objectively justified under European law in increasing the unfair dismissal qualifying period from one to two years in 1985 and in maintaining it in 1991, when the applicants were dismissed, notwithstanding that the qualifying period indirectly discriminated against women.

In R v Secretary of State for Employment, ex parte
Seymour-Smith and another (No.2) 17.2.00 House of Lords, the House of Lords
holds, by a majority, that the extension of the qualifying period for unfair
dismissal from one year to two years in 1985 had a considerably greater adverse
impact on women than men in 1991 so as to amount to indirect discrimination for
the purposes of (what was then) Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome. The available
statistics showed a lesser but persistent and relatively constant disparity over
a long period between men and women. However, the Order that extended the
qualifying period was objectively justified when it was made and remained so six
years later.

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